WHAT’S BEING CLAIMED:

The concept of kinder killing methods for lobsters is also used in Switzerland.

Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound is a restaurant in Seawall, Maine. Its owner, Charlotte Gill, chooses to “hot box” the restaurant’s lobsters. She says she feels bad for the crustaceans, “there is no exit strategy” when they’re brought to the restaurant.

She first tried the method on a lobster named Roscoe. Placed in a box with about two inches of water, Roscoe got “baked” when marijuana smoke was blown into the water through a hole in the bottom. Gill told the Mountain Desert Islander that Roscoe was much calmer when he was put back in the tank with the other lobsters. Roscoe was released back into the ocean as a reward for his participation in the successful experiment.

“If we’re going to take a life, we have a responsibility to do it as humanely as possible,” said Gill, an animal rights supporter.

Marijuana is legal in the state of Maine. The restaurant owner grows her own marijuana and holds a license as a medical marijuana caregiver. Gill sources both the cannabis and lobster to ensure their quality. She told the Mountain Desert Islander that she also has a license to sell the cooked lobster meat.

Gill hopes that when the next year rolls around, all the lobsters in her restaurant will be sedated before being cooked. She insists that eating lobsters sedated through the “hot box” method won’t get you high. Customers will also have the option to have the traditional way used to have their lobster cooked.

The restaurant owner says that the kinder killing method makes for a happier animal and that better meat comes from happier lobsters.

The idea of finding ways to reduce a lobster’s pain isn’t new. KHOU reported that earlier this year, the method of cooking lobster where the live crustacean is tossed into a pot of boiling water was banned in Switzerland.